Wow, I should do this more often!!

Wow, I really don't post nearly as frequently as I'd like to! I'd like to do a recap of everything, but.. I think that's a touch unnecessary, and tends to be pretty lengthy as I like typing and words seem to flow out of my fingertips.
I moved to Sacramento at the end of May. The weather has been about 10 degrees hotter than the Bay Area all summer, so when my friends complain of heat at 90, I wag my finger at them and tell them it's 100 here.

I've been making friends, very very slowly, but it's coming along..



I got frustrated with being home alone all the time, so I started a garden just to get my mind focusing on something else for once.

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Tabitha finally followed her dreams. The only thing I've ever known her to ever really want, and she's finally going for it and succeeding. My sister is a trucker! She left for training in the beginning of August, and she's got her permit and everything! It's really exciting! Even though I know I'll miss her.. I'm secretly a little bit jealous because her job lets her travel and she'll get to meet some very interesting people along the way.

QASA stands for Quality Assurance Self Assessment 

Work has been a bit of a struggle for me. I've worked really hard to be a better employee and a better coworker, and it just feels like I'm chasing my tail all the time. I love my team, but sometimes it feels like I'm talking to a wall when I try to calmly explain things to some of them. Which can be frustrating.. I know I'm not perfect and I really need to work on my approach, but.. It's really getting me down. There was a brief period of hope for me when my district manager and manager had asked me to go to a managers only meeting for health and cleanliness. I wrote as many notes as I could so that the whole team could be knowledgeable and could see how we could make the whole store a cleaner, better place to work. It ended up being 8 printed pages of notes!
And then the manager declared that I was in charge of communications for the whole store since I kept asking about the weekly memos we're supposed to have posted to read every monday that weren't getting posted.
But it's frustrating being responsible for communicating cleanliness guidelines to people who either don't realize I have that responsibility, or just don't care either way. Sometimes it feels like I'm under appreciated there, and it really sucks..

Sacred's practice space during tryouts in August

OH! And I finally joined a roller derby team!! I don't have a whole lot of pictures because it's a little hard to take pictures of yourself skating when you're in the middle of practice. But it's been pretty awesome so far. I missed practice last night, I was afraid of being too late to practice, so I just turned around and went home.. It was awful not being there.. But I didn't want to get yelled at for being late..
Anyway!! Roller Derby teams consist of a lot of girls with various skating ability. Because of that, they typically have beginner, intermediate, and advanced level practices. I am in the 'beginners' part of the team, which I'm actually glad for. It will help me become a stronger skater, and I'll be totally prepared for the intermediate coursework.
The team is WFTDA(Women's Flat Track Derby Association) certified, which means that we can be(and ARE) nationally ranked and play be a standardized set of rules that are recognized worldwide. My team is called the Sacred City Derby Girls, or SCRG. We are currently ranked number 7 in the nation. Which is kind of a big deal. No one in roller derby gets paid to play, and I think that makes it so much more exciting. It's something that I am totally capable of doing myself, and I no one is 'better' than anyone else because they get paid more. It's all for one, and one for all. It's the first time I've EVER been a part of a team sport, and I can't wait to get better at it and compete on a higher level.

Anyway.. It's quickly becoming Wednesday, and I need to get some sleep in! I promise to update more frequently with what's going on in my life!